Public January 6 profile · ready to claim

Matthew Perna

Memorial — Sharpsville, Pennsylvania. Died February 25, 2022, awaiting sentencing. Posthumously pardoned January 20, 2025.

Archive card · not a photograph

**IN MEMORIAM — MATTHEW LAWRENCE PERNA — June 27, 1984 to February 25, 2022** Matthew Perna was thirty-seven years old. He taught English to children in Thailand and South Korea. He came from a big Italian family in western Pennsylvania. His father volunteers at the animal shelter. He walked into the United States Capitol through a door somebody else had already opened, forty-five minutes after Congress had adjourned. He stayed about twenty minutes. He filmed on his phone and chanted U.S.A. **He hurt nobody. He broke nothing. He stole nothing.** That is not his family talking. That is the government''s own Statement of Offense, signed by prosecutors. He turned himself in. He pleaded guilty to everything they charged him with. And four days before he died, his lawyer told him the Justice Department intended to come back and seek a **terrorism enhancement.** Matthew Perna did not live to be sentenced. His aunt wrote his obituary. It says he **died of a broken heart.** --- ## THE MAN, BEFORE ANY OF IT Matthew Lawrence Perna was born June 27, 1984, and grew up in **Sharpsville, Pennsylvania**, in Mercer County — steel country, up near the Ohio line. He graduated from **Sharpsville High School** and from **Penn State.** **[FACT]** Then he did something most people from Sharpsville never do. **He went and taught English to kids in Thailand and South Korea.** **[HIS FAMILY''S ACCOUNT]** Think about who does that. A young guy from a small Pennsylvania town gets on a plane by himself, goes to the other side of the planet, and stands in front of a classroom full of children who do not speak his language, and teaches them. He traveled. He loved it. At the time of his death he was working for himself, marketing water filtration systems, essential oils, and CBD products to about seven thousand followers on social media. **[FACT]** No employer. No group. No militia. No organization of any kind — a fact that would matter enormously later, and not in the way he was promised. His aunt Geri, describing the family: **"We are a large Italian family from Western Pennsylvania."** **[HER ACCOUNT]** She has described her nephew with one word more than any other: **gentle.** **[HER ACCOUNT]** ## WHAT HE ACTUALLY DID ON JANUARY 6 This is where this page is going to do something unusual. It is going to use **the government''s own document** — the Statement of Offense that Matthew Perna and his attorney agreed to and signed — because the government''s version is already the best defense he has. According to that stipulated record: **[FACT — U.S. Government Statement of Offense, Doc. 45, filed December 17, 2021]** - He entered through the **Senate Wing door at approximately 2:47 p.m.** - He entered **after the barriers had been breached by others.** - He remained inside for **approximately twenty minutes.** - He **stayed in the Senate Wing Lobby.** - He held a phone in his right hand and filmed. He chanted "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" He wore a red hoodie. And now the part that should have ended the case: **The Statement of Offense attributes NO violence, NO assault, and NO property damage to Matthew Perna. None. Not one act.** **[FACT]** The government wrote that. Not his aunt. Not a defense brief. The prosecutors. Twenty minutes in a lobby with a cellphone. His aunt put it this way at the United States Capitol: > *He harmed no one. He broke nothing. He stole nothing. He entered the Capitol almost 45 minutes after Congress had adjourned and evacuated. Yet he was charged with obstruction of Congress, a felony that drastically escalated his situation''s seriousness.* **[HER ACCOUNT — prepared remarks published by the office of Rep. Louie Gohmert]** ## THE CHARGES, AND THE MISLABEL He was arrested **January 19, 2021** — **he turned himself in.** **[FACT]** He was indicted **February 25, 2021**, alongside co-defendant Stephen Ayres, on **four counts**: obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2); entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. **[FACT]** Read that indictment date again. **February 25, 2021.** He died **February 25, 2022.** One year to the day from the date they indicted him. Case number **1:21-cr-00156-JDB**, before U.S. District Judge **John D. Bates.** **[FACT]** Two corrections this archive will make, because his name deserves accuracy: **It was not "witness tampering."** Many outlets, including major ones, described his felony that way. That is a mislabel pulled from the chapter heading of the criminal code. The actual charge was **obstruction of an official proceeding.** **[FACT]** **It was four counts, not eighteen.** At least one advocacy outlet reported he pleaded guilty to eighteen charges. It was **four.** **[FACT]** And one detail that tells you how this case was being handled internally: DOJ has stated the prosecution was conducted **jointly with the National Security Division''s Counterterrorism Section.** **[FACT]** A man who filmed a lobby on his phone for twenty minutes was a counterterrorism matter. **On December 17, 2021, Matthew Perna pleaded guilty to all four counts.** **[FACT]** He did what they told him to do. He turned himself in. He cooperated. He took responsibility. He pleaded to everything. ## THE PROMISES Geri Perna laid out what her nephew was told, one line at a time: > *What followed was one betrayal after another from the moment Matt found out that the FBI was looking for him. He turned himself in. The agents said it would make it easier for him. That was a lie. He was told his clean record would count in his favor. It did not. He was told that having no affiliation with any organized group would help. That was another lie. Then he was told that he would most likely face a fine and nothing else. Not true either. His attorney said his sentence would be less if he made a deal and pled guilty to all charges. That was perhaps the greatest lie of all.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** Turn yourself in, it helps. Clean record helps. No group affiliation helps. Plead to everything, it helps. He did all four. Then came the enhancement. ## THE TERRORISM ENHANCEMENT Sentencing was set for **March 3, 2022**, then continued to **April 1.** **[FACT]** On **Monday, February 21, 2022**, his attorney told him sentencing was postponed and that the government intended to seek a **terrorism sentencing enhancement.** **[HIS FAMILY''S ACCOUNT]** Four days later Matthew Perna was dead. His own attorney, **J. Gerald Ingram**, said this on the record: > *The government had recently announced an intention to seek an additional sentencing enhancement with Mr. Perna, and he was psychologically frail and not able to deal with the stress of the situation.* **[FACT — statement of defense counsel]** His aunt: > *The sentencing enhancement is something that is so unconstitutional, it just blows my mind... it was this threat that broke Matt completely.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** > *We all have a breaking point, and that was Matt''s. A life in prison was not imaginable to him. On the phone, he was inconsolable.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** **One honest note, because this archive does not overstate:** DOJ never publicly announced the enhancement, and no filed government pleading stating a specific enhanced range has been located. The figures circulating — 41 to 72 months, 51 to 72 months, 7 to 12 years — **conflict with each other and none of them is anchored to a document.** This page will not print a number as fact. **[NEEDS AUTHENTICATION]** What is documented is the thing that actually matters: **his own lawyer, on the record, said the government signaled a terrorism enhancement, and that his client was not able to bear it.** A terrorism enhancement. For a man the government itself said committed no violence, no assault, and no property damage. ## FEBRUARY 25, 2022 Matthew Perna died at home in Sharpsville on February 25, 2022. He was thirty-seven. He had never been sentenced. **[FACT]** This page will not describe how, and it will not print the details. His family has been through enough, and there is nothing in those details that honors him. What deserves recording is this: **during his viewing, strangers held a candlelight vigil across the street from the funeral home.** **[HIS FAMILY''S ACCOUNT]** People who had never met him stood outside in the cold in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, with candles, for a man they only knew from the news. ## THE OBITUARY HIS AUNT WROTE Geri Perna wrote it herself. It went around the world. > *Matthew Lawrence Perna died on February 25, 2022 of a broken heart. His community (which he loved), his country, and the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life.* **[FACT — quoted in national reporting]** Died of a broken heart. And here is a detail that should be better known. She says the local paper, the Sharon Herald, **refused to print two lines** of the paid obituary — that he entered through a previously opened door and did not break in, and that many people are responsible for the pain he endured — on the grounds that they were unproven. **[HER ACCOUNT — the newspaper''s side of this has not been obtained]** A grieving family paid for space to say goodbye, and got edited. --- # GERI PERNA You cannot tell Matthew Perna''s story without telling his aunt''s, because for more than four years she has been the reason his name is still spoken at all. **Geraldine "Geri" Perna** is Matthew''s **paternal aunt** — sister of his father, **Larry Perna.** She lives in Florida. She was a boutique owner before any of this. She was around fifty-seven when she started. **[FACT]** In her own words: > *My name is Geri Perna. Matthew is my nephew. I use the word IS because Matt''s spirit is very much alive and always will be.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** **Is.** Present tense. Four years later, still present tense. ## WHAT SHE BUILT ### She stood at the Capitol in the rain In the spring of 2022, weeks after burying her nephew, Geri Perna went to Washington and stood outside the United States Capitol in a heavy rain with Representatives **Louie Gohmert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Andy Biggs**, and read prepared remarks. Gohmert''s office published them in full on an official House website under the title "Honoring the Life of Jan. 6 Defendant Matthew Perna." **[FACT]** She opened like this: > *Standing here in front of this building does not give me a sense of pride; instead, it is replaced with a feeling of shame.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** And then she said the thing that nobody in that town wanted printed: > *I promise you that if something is not done to stop this evil torture that is being inflicted upon these people who have not even been convicted of a crime, more will make the choice that Matthew Perna has made. This is not a Democrat or a Republican issue; it is an issue about humanity.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** She was not asking for sympathy for one family. She was warning about the next one. > *I agreed to come to this press conference today because I do not want Matthew Perna''s name forgotten. There are hundreds of other people just like him standing in his shoes.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** > *Most of our congressmen and women have remained silent. It is harmful to their careers to speak out... Meanwhile, my brother lost his son.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** *Meanwhile, my brother lost his son.* That is her brother she is talking about. Larry, who volunteers at the animal shelter. ### She got his name onto federal legislation — three times **The Matthew Lawrence Perna Act** has been introduced in Congress **three separate times.** **[FACT]** | Bill | Congress | Introduced | Sponsor | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **H.R. 9583** — Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2022 | 117th | December 15, 2022 | Rep. Louie Gohmert | | **H.R. 7540** — Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2024 | 118th | March 1, 2024 | Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene | | **H.R. 277** — Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2025 | 119th | January 9, 2025 | Rep. Greene, with Rep. Massie | **None of the three has been enacted. Each died in committee.** **[FACT]** This page says that plainly, because pretending otherwise would be exactly the kind of thing this archive exists to correct. But look at what the bill actually does, because it is not symbolic. Substantially the same text in all three versions would: **[FACT — bill text]** - **End pretrial detention** for nonviolent covered political protest offenses - Create a **civil damages action** for defendants who were detained and then acquitted or had charges dismissed - Amend the **Speedy Trial Act** - Create a new federal tort of **malicious overprosecution** - **Bar the use of national security authorities against U.S. citizens** - Open a **FOIA path** for a citizen to learn whether they are or were under surveillance - Allow a defendant to **elect venue transfer out of the District of Columbia** That last one is the one prosecutors would fight hardest, and Geri Perna has said exactly why — she argues D.C. jury pools pressure innocent people into pleading guilty. Her nephew pleaded guilty to all four counts. She is not speaking theoretically. A woman who ran a boutique wrote her nephew''s obituary, and then helped put a federal criminal-procedure reform bill in front of Congress three times. ### She built a foundation, and it is real The **Matthew Lawrence Perna Foundation** is not a GoFundMe. It is an IRS-recognized **501(c)(3)**, EIN **93-2803485**, tax-exempt since **January 2024**. Geri Perna is President and Treasurer. **[FACT — IRS filings]** The receipts, from public filings: **[FACT]** | Fiscal year | Revenue | Expenses | | --- | --- | --- | | 2023 | $42,965 | $6,996 | | 2024 | $23,553 | $15,790 | | 2025 | $44,580 | $31,811 | Net assets: **$56,501.** FY2025 was its biggest year yet — four years after his death, giving went **up**, not down. And this line belongs in bold: **zero officer compensation.** **[FACT]** She has never taken a dollar. The stated mission is scholarships and educational aid, food and supplies for the poor, animal rescue, anti-human-trafficking work, and community and park development. **[FACT]** Animal rescue. His father volunteers at the shelter. Memorial contributions in Matthew''s name go to the **Shenango Valley Animal Shelter**, where Larry volunteers. **[FACT]** ### She turned his memory into a race The foundation runs an annual event in **Sharpsville, Pennsylvania** — first the **MP Freedom 5K**, now the **Shebango Dirts Classic 5K and 8-Mile Run/Walk.** The **fourth annual** was held **Saturday, September 6, 2025.** **[FACT]** Here is what the proceeds of the fourth annual were earmarked for: **A service dog for a veteran in need.** **[FACT]** Read that again. A family destroyed by the federal government spends the anniversary of its worst year raising money to put a service dog with a veteran. That is what Geri Perna does with grief. ### She never stopped talking Fox News with Tucker Carlson in March 2022 — her first time on camera. NTD in April 2022. Sandy Rios on American Family Radio. Diamond and Silk. Sebastian Gorka in January 2023, alongside Cynthia Hughes of the Patriot Freedom Project. An on-camera interview in the 2023 documentary *Police State.* A Newsmax feature in May 2025. She is on X as **@GeriPerna.** **[FACT]** She spoke at a **Trump rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on September 3, 2022**, and met Trump backstage in **Youngstown, Ohio on September 17, 2022.** She met him again at Mar-a-Lago in 2023. **[FACT]** Of that meeting she said: > *My nephew wasn''t violent. My nephew didn''t deserve years in prison. And yet he killed himself because of that threat of those years in prison.* **[HER ACCOUNT — as reported]** The Washington Post reported that **Matthew Perna was the only individual January 6 defendant Trump had specifically promised to pardon by name.** **[FACT — as reported]** One woman got that done. From Florida. With a PO box and a phone. ### She spoke at the 2023 Capitol event On **June 13, 2023**, she spoke at Rep. Matt Gaetz''s "Field Hearing on January 6" at the Capitol. **[FACT]** **One correction for the record:** that was a **Member-hosted event, not an official committee hearing.** No committee jurisdiction, no sworn testimony, no printed transcript. Outlets that called it a "House hearing" overstated it. **[FACT]** Her words were real. The forum was not a formal proceeding, and this archive will not inflate it. Photographs from that day show her holding up **a handwritten note her nephew left.** **[FACT]** ## THE PARDON On **January 20, 2025**, Proclamation 10887 granted a full, complete and unconditional pardon to those convicted of January 6 offenses. **Matthew Perna was covered posthumously.** **[FACT]** She had been asking for exactly that, in public, for years. In November 2024: > *Matthew Perna never waited for his sentencing hearing (which was postponed so the prosecutor could add the terrorism enhancement)... Our family wants a Posthumous Pardon to clear his name, regardless. President Trump already told me to my face he will do this.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** She got it. His record is clear. **And she did not stop.** This is the part that tells you she was never in it for a team. She has continued to press the administration publicly: > *You know my nephew''s story. We''ve spoken on 2 occasions AND I spoke at one of your rallies. WHEN ARE THE PEOPLE THAT YOU TRUST GOING TO ARREST SOMEONE for Jan 6? Over 1600 lives were ruined...* **[HER ACCOUNT — posted publicly on X]** A pardon cleared her nephew''s name. It did not bring him back, and she has said out loud that nobody has been held to account. She is still asking. Four years in, still asking. ## ONE THING WE COULD NOT VERIFY The story circulates that Matthew Perna''s **gravestone** carries an inscription about his prosecution. This archive checked, and **it appears not to be true.** Public records indicate he was **cremated**, which likely means there is no headstone at all. No evidence of any marker with that language was found. **[NEEDS AUTHENTICATION — reported as unverified]** What is real is the **obituary Geri wrote** — the one that says he died of a broken heart, and that his community, his country, and the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life. That is almost certainly where the story comes from, and it does not need a stone to be permanent. It has been reprinted around the world. If the family says otherwise, this page will be corrected the same day. ## IF YOU ARE THE NEXT ONE Geri Perna stood at the Capitol and warned that if nothing changed, **more people would make the choice her nephew made.** She was right to say it, and it is the reason this section is on his page. If you are a defendant, or a spouse, or a parent, and the weight of this has gotten to where Matthew''s got — you are not weak and you are not alone, and the pressure being put on you is real, not imagined. Please tell somebody today. Your lawyer, your pastor, your wife, your aunt. In the U.S. you can call or text **988** any hour of the day and talk to a person. Matthew Perna was four days from a phone call that would have told him the world was about to change. He never got to hear it. **His name was cleared on January 20, 2025 — three years too late.** Stay for the phone call. Somebody in your family will spend the rest of their life fighting for your name if you do not, and they would rather have you. ## WHAT THIS PROVES - Matthew Perna **taught English to children in Thailand and South Korea.** - He entered the Capitol **after others breached it, through an already-opened door, 45 minutes after Congress adjourned.** - He was inside about **twenty minutes**, in a lobby, filming on his phone. - **The government''s own Statement of Offense attributes no violence, no assault, and no property damage to him.** - He **turned himself in**, had a **clean record**, had **no group affiliation**, and **pleaded guilty to all four counts.** - His case was prosecuted **jointly with the National Security Division''s Counterterrorism Section.** - **Four days** after his attorney told him the government would seek a **terrorism enhancement**, he died. He was **never sentenced.** - His attorney stated on the record that he was **psychologically frail and not able to deal with the stress.** - He was **posthumously pardoned January 20, 2025.** - His aunt **Geri Perna** got his name onto **three federal bills**, built a **real 501(c)(3)** that has raised over $110,000 and pays its officers **nothing**, and runs an annual race that funded **a service dog for a veteran.** ## WHAT THIS DOES NOT PROVE No court ever found the enhancement improper, because it was never litigated. DOJ never publicly announced it, and no filed pleading with a specific enhanced range has been located — the numbers in circulation conflict. The Perna Act has never become law. The June 2023 Gaetz event was not an official hearing. The gravestone story is unverified. None of that changes the core of it. **The government said he was violent toward no one and destroyed nothing, and then signaled it would treat him as a terrorist. He died before they could.** ## THE RECORD | | | | --- | --- | | Full name | Matthew Lawrence Perna | | Born | June 27, 1984 | | Died | February 25, 2022, aged 37 — Sharpsville, Pennsylvania | | Home | Sharpsville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania | | Education | Sharpsville High School; Penn State | | Work | Taught English in Thailand and South Korea; independent marketer | | Arrested | January 19, 2021 — **turned himself in** | | Indicted | February 25, 2021 — exactly one year before his death | | Case number | 1:21-cr-00156-JDB | | Court | U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia | | Judge | John D. Bates | | Defense counsel | J. Gerald Ingram | | Co-defendant | Stephen Ayres | | Counts | Four — lead count 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding | | Prosecuted with | DOJ National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section | | Entered Capitol | Approx. 2:47 p.m., Senate Wing door, after others breached | | Time inside | Approx. 20 minutes, Senate Wing Lobby | | Violence / damage attributed | **None** — per the government's Statement of Offense | | Plea | Guilty, all four counts, December 17, 2021 | | Sentencing | Set March 3, 2022; continued to April 1, 2022; **never held** | | Pardon | Posthumous — Proclamation 10887, January 20, 2025 | | Foundation | Matthew Lawrence Perna Foundation, EIN 93-2803485, 501(c)(3) | | Legislation | Matthew Lawrence Perna Act — H.R. 9583 (2022), H.R. 7540 (2024), H.R. 277 (2025) | | Memorial giving | Shenango Valley Animal Shelter, where his father volunteers | --- He taught kids on the other side of the world. He came home. He walked through an open door and filmed a lobby for twenty minutes. He turned himself in and told the truth and pleaded guilty to all of it. They called him a terrorist anyway. His aunt wrote that he died of a broken heart, and then she spent four years making sure the whole country knew his name — three bills, a foundation, a race, a service dog for a veteran, and a pardon that came three years too late. **Matthew is.** Present tense. She was right about that. Say his name. Matthew Perna. *They wanted silence. His aunt built a record.* This profile is unclaimed. If this is you — or your family — claiming it is free, forever.

Evidence on file

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Court orders, rulings, transcripts, and docket entries.

transcript · Jun 22, 2022

Stephen Ayres — Continued January 6 Committee Interview Transcript

Official 32-page transcript of Stephen Ayres’s continued June 22, 2022 interview with the House Select Committee. Statements are preserved as attributed firsthand testimony, not independent findings.

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